Behind the Helm

Bargaining with the Odd

As adventurers venture further and further into the Odd World with each passing session, it begins to… rub off onto them. They will it to do so themselves. The Odd World (or Mythic Underworld, or just “the dungeon”) obeys different rules than surface-reality, you see, and thus it requires different skills and abilities from those who seek to profit from it; you can’t expect a normal human to get through it unscathed, or even alive, for that matter. But luckily, the Odd, eternally in flux as it is, offers a solution: slowly destroy your humanity and re-make yourself in the Odd’s image, and you’ll become king within the Odd lands; but when you return, people will see the part of you that’s missing.

This is the meaning of being an adventurer: to give the Odd parts of yourself, in exchange for power within the Odd World. But how much are you willing to sacrifice?

Odd Bargains

Occasionally, the Odd lends its hand to you, and offers you a trade. These are the Bargains. They might manifest as physical, mental, or spiritual modifications; they might be one-time use, or reusable over time, or permanently active; they might be invisible to the outside observer, or apparent to everyone around you; they might be optional, or they might mandate you to accept them if you want to go forward. But they all share these traits:

Typically, Bargains make themselves known instantly. The Odd wants you to take them, and thus tells your subconscious what they are when you come across them. (When players see a bargain, they mysteriously seem to know what it is already. Tell them the nature of the Bargain. Reveal information in italics only once the bargain is taken.)

Bargains are all irreversible. The only way to get rid of one is to replace it with another, more invasive one (higher up on the list) that affects the same ability/part of the body.

  1. Spike Barnacle: Small rust-colored barnacle. You can place as many as you wish onto a limb: when making an unarmed strike with that limb, the barnacle can shoot out a bony spike, adding d6 to that attack (you can use as many barnacles as you wish on a single attack). Each barnacle is single use, leaving a crusty pale ring on your skin. Any clothing or armor worn on top of the barnacle scars is torn to shreds within the week.
  2. Beast Embryo: A skinless lizard, laying helplessly on a pedestal. Melds into your skin if you touch it, leaving only the eyes peeking out. If you show a monster the lizard-eyes, it will understand anything you say to it. Mundane dogs, cats, and domestic mammals hate you. Mundane birds instinctively try to perch on you.
  3. Red-Eye: A silver ring the size of a bracelet, bleeding from the cracks on its surface. Fit it onto your eyesocket: the eye takes sprouts red bee-wings and takes flight at your will. Anything it lands on, you always instinctively know where it is, and can perfectly aim ranged attacks at it. Your eye cannot return to the socket, it just flies around you. You lose the ability to look people in the eyes.
  4. Track Sensor: Pink fluid with swirling oil-like reflections, gushing out of the bark of a tree. Inhale it, and you gain the ability to see the path taken by any creature you have smelled the scent of before. You see all painted surfaces as a drab beige, and cannot make out drawn or painted images.
  5. Flight: A yellow feather. Place it between your shoulder blades: it attaches onto the skin, and it grows into a pair of bony, stringy bird-wings. You reek of acid and musk, constantly. The wings take up the space of two people even when closed.
  6. Hearing Berry: Eat this fruit, and a rubbery, furred bat-ear grows on top of your head. You may ask a question to the Odd, and the Odd will answer. The Odd never lies to the bat-ear, but it never tells complete truths either. When given a choice, it will always try to drive you away from people.
  7. Nail Rocket: A box of chitin spikes. Push one into a knuckle, and the corresponding finger shoots out like a bullet (d12 damage as a ranged attack). Take the nail out of the knuckle, and the finger regrows over a week of painful sleepless nights. As long as you have any regrown finger on your hand, you are unable to sleep at all from the pain.
  8. Infrasight: A rune to be etched into your scalp with a chisel. Gives you permanent heat-vision, but you lose the ability to see color at all. Looking at fires or electric lights gives you splitting migraines.
  9. Snorkel Lung: Colorful lumpy stone with a coral-like tube with the thickness of a pistol barrel. Bite into it, and it covers your mouth: you can extend the tube at will, into any shape and any length, and breathe through it. You cannot widen the tube, however. You can only consume food crushed into a slurry, which makes a hideous noise.
  10. Claw Jelly: A rubbery wall inlaid with mollusk shells. Place a hand into it, and a pincer-claw (d8 as a melee weapon) grows in its stead. Its grip is unbreakable. You cannot manipulate objects with the claw, except for clumsily moving them around. Any fragile object you hold in it breaks.
  11. Odd-Crown: Five shards of kaleidoscopic volcanic glass, scattered around the Odd World. With each successive shard that you stab into your head, a new bargain takes hold.
    • First shard: You can instantly identify any Oddity or magical effect, but cannot recognize faces and facial expressions.
    • Second shard: You gain the ability to sprout any natural weapon from your body, but lose the ability to use manmade objects and tools.
    • Third shard: You can give orders to monsters which they will obey as long as it doesn’t bring direct harm to them, but cannot use human language.
    • Fourth shard: You may swim through any wall and surface within the Odd as if it were water, but cannot walk onto or enter into human-made structures.
    • Fifth shard: You can generate psychic blasts with the strength of dynamite (d12 Blast) at will. You cannot communicate with another living being if not through orders, and cannot exit the Odd.